‘ROCKET-RIDER’Scott
Carpenter Inspires A New Generation

Top photo: Scott Carpenter in Chico, April 25, 2003. Middle photo:
Astronaut Carpenter talks with President John Kennedy after the
successful Aurora 7 flight in May 1962. Bottom Photo: Carpenter
during recovery, May 1962.

Promising that we will be “doing things in space we can’t
even imagine now,” original Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter predicted
a manned colony on Mars within 50 years and private space travel “perhaps
this year.” “We are in the process of moving off our planet,”
he proclaimed in his April 22 Founders Week Presidential Lecture, “Dawn
of the Space Age and Beyond.”

Carpenter was the second American to orbit the earth, flying his Aurora
7 spacecraft three times around the earth in May 1962, at a maximum altitude
of 164 miles.

In his introduction of Carpenter, CSU, Chico President Manuel A. Esteban
cited the flight as a “triumph of science and human courage.”
Space flight, he said, has come to be regarded as almost routine, but
the recent Columbia shuttle tragedy has reminded us of the perilous early
days of space travel.

Carpenter said he is often asked if he was afraid. “Nothing worthwhile
is unattended by risk,” he said. “If you accept the risk,
you just don’t think about it any more. You’re completely
detached. It’s real handy.” About the Columbia, he asserted,
“Everyone who died knew the risk and would do it again because of
its everlasting value to the human race. New knowledge is priceless.”

Sharing stories with an appreciative audience, Carpenter told how he “got
into the business.” It was the time of the Cold War, when “we
were convinced that our very survival depended on our showing we were
better than the Soviets.” He credits the space race with keeping
the United States out of war with the Soviet Union, providing “constructive
space exploration instead of destructive war.”

He met President Eisenhower’s qualifications that “rocket-riders”
should be jet-qualified military flyers with an aeronautical science degree.
Another qualification was that they had to be no taller than 5’11”—to
fit in the space capsule. “A lot of good men didn’t go to
space because they grew too tall,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter’s talk was accompanied by videos of his original flight
and more recent space footage, produced with the help of Carpenter’s
longtime friend Joe Wills Sr., father of CSU, Chico Director of Public
Affairs Joe Wills Jr. Wills Sr., a retired film industry executive, met
Carpenter 35 years ago when both were involved in a film project. “When
you look into that engineer’s mind of his,” Wills said, “you
are just amazed by how smart he is.”

Carpenter’s accomplishments include gaining the unique title of
astronaut/aquanaut by spending 30 days in 1965 living and working on the
ocean floor in the Navy’s SEALAB II Man-in-the-Sea project, off
the coast of Southern California. He also was founder and chief executive
of Sea Sciences, Inc., a company involved with ocean resources.

His many awards include the Navy’s Legion of Merit, the Distinguished
Flying Cross, and NASA Distinguished Service Medal. He has written two
“underwater techno-thrillers” and his memoir, For Spacious
Skies, co-authored with his daughter, Kristen.

Asked about his “brightest and darkest 10 minutes” in space
travel, Carpenter cited the brightest as looking out at the earth from
space—“you see your own insignificance.” Of the darkest,
he replied: “I don’t dwell on them. You get over accidents
and darkness, but you never get over the bright moments.”